Some Can Whistle

Rating:
Summary: McMurtry knows how to write...
Review: ...but unfortunately he doesn't always know what to with the plot. This is a very well-written and entertaining book, but the protagonist goes from beginning to end letting things happen to him rather than actually living his life in an active manner. McMurtry uses a particular literary device (which you'll understand if you read the book) to shock him, but unlike the defibrillators used to shock heart patients, he still lives his life in a more or less brain dead manner. McMurtry has used this same literary device in other novels, and it starts looking like his default choice when he doesn't know what else to do with his characters.

Rating:
Summary: A gift for words with a preposterous plot.
Review: Although this is the first of McMurtry's books I have read, his name is familiar through films made from his books. His gift for verbal illustration is quite enjoyable and his descriptions are vivd. The problem with the book is that not one of the characters is likeable except for T.R.'s children and even that is questionable. I was actually happy when they were murdered by T.R.'s ex-lover. After her death and that of Godwin, the book spirals downward in a series of narratives of promising lives cut short as one after another of the characters dies. The narrator, Danny Deck, comes off as a spoiled and spoiling multi-millionaire without any sense of discipline for himself or the others. The entire narrative comes off as pointless and after finishing the book my feeling was one of time wasted.

Rating:
Summary: Consider the turns life takes
Review: Ever since I read "All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers," I wondered what became of Danny Deck. Come to find out that Deck is alive, though not particularly well. He has isolated and insulated himself. Then, after being lost to him for twenty years, his daughter appears and overturns his life. She pierces his armor and brings him joy and tears. There are moving and beautiful moments in this book, and some hilarious ones as well.

Rating:
Summary: Consider the turns life takes
Review: I love this book. Danny Deck's journey from a self-involved recluse to the walking wounded is both funny and tragic. Just as in real life, Danny's life changes forever in the course of a phone call. T. R. and the cast of characters that draw Danny back into the land of the living for an all too brief time are unforgetable. I sometimes find myself thinking of this story, partly because something similar happened to me. But I also think of this story when I realize yet again that life short and can turn on a dime. Danny's story is universal, although few of us a gazillioniares. Love, loss and the journey not taken is something everyone, in one way or another, can relate to. This book will make you think.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre.
Review: I loved Texasville, and couldn't finish Terms of Endearment. Unfortunately, "Some Can Whistle" is closer to Terms of Endearment, although I can take the main character, Danny Deck, more seriously. He is the former writer/producer of a number one rated TV series, who has become depressed, and doesn't do much on an isolated estate. The 21 year old daughter he has never seen contacts him, and sets the plot in motion, while awakening him from his depression. In some ways she is his antithesis: vital, joyful, impulsive. The book revels in eccentricities, but I didn't find it very amusing. It does make some interesting explorations of the nature of love and friendship between man and woman (parental love for children is unconditional in the novel). I found the main character interesting at times, and enjoyed the daughter. The book's ending was moving.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre.
Review: I loved Texasville, and couldn't finish Terms of Endearment. Unfortunately, "Some Can Whistle" is closer to Terms of Endearment, although I can take the main character, Danny Deck, more seriously. He is the former writer/producer of a number one rated TV series, who has become depressed, and doesn't do much on an isolated estate. The 21 year old daughter he has never seen contacts him, and sets the plot in motion, while awakening him from his depression. In some ways she is his antithesis: vital, joyful, impulsive. The book revels in eccentricities, but I didn't find it very amusing. It does make some interesting explorations of the nature of love and friendship between man and woman (parental love for children is unconditional in the novel). I found the main character interesting at times, and enjoyed the daughter. The book's ending was moving.

Rating:
Summary: Mc Murtry's haunting story
Review: It is easy to see in reviewing the reviews, that people either love or hate this book. It is a short book which treats itself as unimportant until it reminds us to live life. It is like "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in that it teaches us that the essence of your life can be defined by a very short period of time. This can be a very moving book.

Rating:
Summary: Mc Murtry's haunting story
Review: It is easy to see in reviewing the reviews, that people either love or hate this book. It is a short book which treats itself as unimportant until it reminds us to live life. It is like "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in that it teaches us that the essence of your life can be defined by a very short period of time. This can be a very moving book.

Rating:
Summary: I was extremely dissappointed
Review: Some can whistle was from beginning to end, depressing beyond words. Usually, even with books that are inately sad there is some culmination or resolution of events, there is something that gives us hope, not so in this book. It begins sadly and ends even sadder with the death of the daughter that he has just come to know. I put this book down feeling extremely depressed and had to engross myself in a good murder mystery to ease the pain.

Rating:
Summary: No Spoilers!
Review: This book I found the characters leaving a bad taste in my mouth. There is only one scene I found endering. I found All My Friends... enjoyable. But not this one. Mr McMurtry I love the rest of your woorks.